National Lottery Awards

The National Lottery has raised over £33 billion for more than 450,000 different projects across the UK since the game began in 1994, with 28p of every £1 played on Lotto, EuroMillions and other National Lottery games going towards Good Causes in the UK. This works out at an average of £34 million each week.

These Good Causes are honoured every year with the National Lottery Awards, where the public gets to choose the schemes that they decide deserve special recognition. There are seven categories:

Best Arts Project

Best Education Project

Best Environment Project

Best Health Project

Best Heritage Project

Best Sport Project

Best Voluntary/Charity Project

Any National Lottery-funded project can apply for the awards - these are then reviewed by an independent body and a shortlist of ten causes in each category is drawn up and published. The public vote on the scheme they deem most deserving of the award in each category during the summer, with the winners revealed at a televised star-studded awards ceremony in September.

Each of the seven winners receives a £2,000 cash prize for their project and a trophy.